Facebook uncovers political influence campaign ahead of mid term elections

Facebook says it cannot identify who is behind the latest political influence campaign, but says it sees similarities with the 2016 effort led by Russian actors. (AFP/KAREN BLEIER) It said the “bad actor” accounts on the world’s biggest social network and its photo-sharing site Instagram could not be tied directly to Russian actors, who American officials say used the platform to spread disinformation ahead of the 2016 US presidential election. The US intelligence community has concluded that Russia sought to sway the vote in Donald Trump’s favor, and Facebook was a primary tool in that effort, using targeted ads to escalate political tensions and push divisive online content. With the 2018 mid-terms barely three months away, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced his company’s crackdown. “One of my top priorities for 2018 is to prevent misuse of Facebook,” Zuckerberg said on his own Facebook page. “We build services to bring people closer together and I want to ensure we’re doing everything we can to prevent anyone from misusing them to drive us apart.” Trump, now president, has repeatedly downplayed Kremlin efforts to interfere in US democracy. Two weeks ago, he caused an international firestorm when he stood alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin and cast doubt on assertions that Russia tried to sabotage the vote. But after Facebook’s announcement, the White House stressed Trump opposed all efforts at election interference. “The president has made it clear that his administration will not tolerate foreign interference into our electoral process from any nation state… [Read full story]